Of knights and snails

One the funnest parts of looking at medieval art is running across an illustration of a knight fighting a snail. 

There are many theories as to what these snails are doing in the art, but not a one of them matches my own, which I came up with this year while reading through the Psalms with my family. Take a look at this:

Psalm 58

1 Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?
2 Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.
3 The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.
4 Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;
5 Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.
6 Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O Lord.
7 Let them melt away as waters which run continually: when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces.
8 As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.
9 Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.
10 The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
11 So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.

 

The psalmist is describing how ferocious and dangerous the enemies of God appear, but then in verse 8 he says, "As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away."

In other words, they appear unconquerable, but they really aren't. 

The popular idea about this image is that the knight has given up and is begging mercy of the victorious snail, but I believe he has recognized that this is spiritual warfare, so he has laid down his sword and is praying to God for deliverance.

What's your favorite theory?

L'Histoire de Cupidon et Psyché

 I don't think I've mentioned this here before, but since I'm technically a retired homeschool mom now, I've been taking a French class at the local college. It's something I've wanted to do for decades, so I'm grateful for the opportunity to do it now. Let me tell you, it's not easy learning a new language at my age, but it has been fun. For the final exam, the professor wanted each of us to do a "surprise" project, so I wrote a fairly brief version of the Cupid and Psyche story, which y'all know I love, and told it for the class -- partly from memory, but thankfully she let us look at our notes because actually DOING it made me forget nearly the whole thing. Anyway, for your amusement, here's the story, along with my introductory remarks. 

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Je vais vous raconter l'histoire de ce tableau. Il s'appele "The Wedding of Psyche," ou "Le Mariage de Psyché" par le paintre Edward Bourne-Jones.

 

« L’Histoire de Cupidon et Psyché »

Il était une fois un roi qui avait trois filles. La cadette était si belle que Vénus est devenue jalouse d’elle. Elle a envoyé son fils faire tomber Psyché amoureuse d’une bête, mais quand il l’a vu, il est tombé d’amoureux, et il a désobéi sa mère.

Il a demandé aux autres dieux de l’aider, alors l’oracle d’Apollon est allé vers le roi, et il l’a dit, « Donnez votre fille en mariage à la bête à la montagne. »

  

Ici, nous voyons Psyché et ses demoiselles aller à la montagne.

 

Elle est montée seule, et elle a attendu. Bientôt, Zephyrus est arrivé et il l’a apporté vers un grand château. Les portes se sont ouvertes et une voix a dit, « Bienvenue à chez vous, Madame. »

Psyché est entrée dans le château, et elle a vu toute chose elle avait besoin.

Quand la nuit tomba, son mari est venu. Elle n’a pu pas le voir parce qu’il faisait noir, mais sa voix était gentille.

Il lui dit : « Je t’aime et j’espère que tu seras heureuse ici. Tu peux avoir tout ce que tu veux. Mais il y a une chose que tu ne peux pas faire – ne me vois pas dans la lumière. »

Le temps a passé, et Psyché était heureuse.

 

Un jour, ses sœurs sont montées, et Psyché est sortie pour les rencontrer. Quand ses sœurs l’ont vu, elles sont devenues jalouses.

Elles ont dit, « Pourquoi es-tu si heureuse quand tu es mariée avec une bête ? »

« Non, » a dit Psyché, « il n’est pas une bête ! »

« Alors, » ont dit ses sœurs, « tu dois découvrir la vérité. » Et elles lui ont dit quoi faire.

Quand elle est rentrée chez elle, Psyché a tenu une lampe allumée, l’a recouverte, et l’a cachée dans sa chambre. Après que son mari a dormi, Psyché a pris la lampe, et l’a découverte.

Et ce qu’elle a vu ! En vérité, son mari n’est pas une bête ! Il est le Dieu d’Amour !

Immédiatement, Cupidon s’est réveillé et s’est crié, « Qu’as-tu fais ? »

Il s’est envolé et Psyché est devenue triste. Elle l'a cherché, et elle ne l'a point trouvé.

Enfin, elle est allée vers Vénus, et elle a dit, « Je suis désolée. S’il vous plaît, donnez-moi mon mari, celui que mon cœur aime ! »

Vénus a dit, « Jamais ! » et elle lui a donné des tâches impossibles.

Enfin, elle a dit, « Va chercher la potion de beauté de Perséphone, et donne-la-moi. » 

 

Psyché est descendue à Hadès, et après beaucoup de souffrance, elle est retournée à la terre, avec un vase d’albâtre. Elle a voulu un peu de potion pour se rendre belle à nouveau pour son mari.

Mais la potion de beauté de Perséphone est le sommeil, et quand elle a ouvert le vase, elle est tombée par terre comme si elle était morte.

Pendent que Psyché travaillait et souffrait, Cupidon était sous les verrous, parce que sa mère était furieuse. Mais quand Psyché est tombée, il a brisé les verrous, et s’est envolé vers elle. Il a pris le sommeil de ses yeux, et l’a porté au ciel, où il a demandé de l’aide à Jupiter.

Ensuite, Jupiter a réprimandé Vénus, et Psyché a été faite une déesse, et tous les dieux l’ont reçue comme la femme de Cupidon.

Bientôt, leur enfant est née. Elle s’appelle Plaisir.

 

Fin.

 

The 4th Day of Christmas: Holy Innocents

The Massacre of the Innocents, Giotto
image via Wikipedia

Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying,

In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.
(Matthew 2:16-18)

"Tomorrow shall be my dancing day"

Nativity by Fra Filippo Lippi (detail)
via Wikimedia Commons

This traditional English carol was apparently part of a medieval mystery play and has eleven verses  of Christ himself telling the whole story of his birth, life, suffering and death, and ascension, but most recordings, like the one below, only use the first four verses.  This is John Gardner's delightful arrangement.






Tomorrow shall be my dancing day;
I would my true love did so chance
To see the legend of my play,
To call my true love to my dance;

Chorus

Sing, oh! my love, oh! my love, my love, my love,
This have I done for my true love.

Then was I born of a virgin pure,
Of her I took fleshly substance
Thus was I knit to man's nature
To call my true love to my dance.

Chorus

In a manger laid, and wrapped I was
So very poor, this was my chance
Between an ox and a silly poor ass
To call my true love to my dance.

Chorus

Then afterwards baptized I was;
The Holy Ghost on me did glance,
My Father’s voice heard I from above,
To call my true love to my dance.

Chorus

Into the desert I was led,
Where I fasted without substance;
The Devil bade me make stones my bread,
To have me break my true love's dance.

Chorus

The Jews on me they made great suit,
And with me made great variance,
Because they loved darkness rather than light,
To call my true love to my dance.

Chorus

For thirty pence Judas me sold,
His covetousness for to advance:
Mark whom I kiss, the same do hold!
The same is he shall lead the dance.

Chorus

Before Pilate the Jews me brought,
Where Barabbas had deliverance;
They scourged me and set me at nought,
Judged me to die to lead the dance.

Chorus

Then on the cross hanged I was,
Where a spear my heart did glance;
There issued forth both water and blood,
To call my true love to my dance.

Chorus

Then down to hell I took my way
For my true love's deliverance,
And rose again on the third day,
Up to my true love and the dance.

Chorus

Then up to heaven I did ascend,
Where now I dwell in sure substance
On the right hand of God, that man
May come unto the general dance.

Chorus

So, this is what I did instead of nature notebook

Motifs found at Tangle Patterns, chosen because they reminded me of the florets on the sunchoke flowers.

Comics

My eleven year old is experimenting with making comics, using a mouse in Paint.  She's the person on the receiving end of the unwanted affectionate head-pat by her older brother.

Later...

Back to school

This is my first post of 2013 and the post that will knock my last back-to-school post off the front page!

We've had an unusually long summer break. The kids visited their grandmother in Arkansas for a month, I went to CiRCE's conference in Baltimore, and accompanied my husband (just the two of us, alone for several days -- first time in nearly twenty years) to his 30 year high school reunion in Florida.  I also got to visit an out-of-state friend I haven't seen in more than a year, and another out-of-state friend I haven't seen in eighteen years.  This is the first summer we've ever had where I really felt like I had a vacation -- not just a break from school work.

We were all eager to start back, but I usually ease back into the routine with a half-day schedule for the first week, so as not to shock the system. My system, that is. So this week we've been having our Morning Time, which takes about an hour and a half. Here's the MT routine:

Prayers and Bible
We use the "Daily Devotions for Individuals and Families" from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, which I blogged about here. Most years we get our Bible readings from the Lectionary, which gives us a Psalm, and an Old Testament and a New Testament reading, but this year I decided to read straight through a few books. We're currently reading the Gospel of Luke, generally reading from one paragraph mark [¶] to the next. The Prayer Book has all of the Psalms, marked so that they can be read responsively by the half-verse, but it's a modern translation and we always used the King James Version for our memory work and the kids were wanting to read that version, so we're reading straight from our Bibles.

Poetry
Currently reading a collection of Tennyson's poetry which I bought from Eighth Day Books at the conference. I've read his Idylls of the King and a few of his shorter works, but this book contains several I'd never read before. The first poem in the book is "The Mermaid," which starts off sweet and light and takes a dark turn at the last, which I didn't see coming. One of the main benefits I get in reading poetry aloud is that it forces me to slow down and really notice what's happening. If you're reading in your head you might not notice that the poet has changed from words that are quick and light to slow, heavy words. When you're reading aloud, those words take longer to pronounce so you're forced to slow down -- you can feel the change in tone. (And of course, reading poetry aloud and discussing it with your kids is good for them, too. Have I mentioned before that I'm getting an education by home schooling my kids?)

Plutarch
The last biography we read was Pericles; this time we're reading Fabius.  I use Anne White's study guides found at Ambleside Online.  This year I'm reading from Plutarch every day instead of once a week.  We have so many unexpected interruptions that it usually takes me a year to read one life, instead of the expected twelve weeks... which is dumb, but there it is.

Homer
Something new this year.  I've had these books for years and have used them as an afternoon read-aloud at least once in the past, but it was before my younger children came along.  I'd recommend you get this version if at all possible -- Rosemary Sutcliff's retelling is beautiful and of course Alan Lee's illustrations are gorgeous.  We're reading a chapter a day and I pause occasionally to let one of the children narrate.  After reading our chapter we talk about whatever interested us in the day's reading.

This retelling of the Trojan War begins with the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, who become the parents of Achilles, and tells how the angry, uninvited Goddess of Discord showed up and spoiled the festivities, so the story is told in chronological order.  Today I finally got to the part nine years into the war where Achilles is sitting on the beach raging about Agamemnon's bad treatment of him, so after our reading and discussion I took out the grown up version translated by WHD Rouse, and read the first page.  It begins, "An angry man -- there is my story:  the bitter rancor of Achilles, prince of the house of Peleus, which brought a thousand troubles upon the Achaian host.  Many a strong soul it sent down to Hades, and left the heroes themselves a prey to dogs and carrion birds, while the will of God moved on to fulfillment."

They thought it was exciting to start in the middle of the story and wanted me to read more, but it was time to send them...

Outside
This has always been a vital part of my children's upbringing, just playing or loafing.  Of course, they have chores now, but this outside time is meant to be leisure time.  When we're doing a full day of school work, I try to give them at least half an hour during this break before calling them in for lunch and their individual studies.

That's it.

Like I said, everything up to the outside time takes about an hour and a half, not because the readings take that long, but because we meander and talk so much.

Things to be added next week
Morning Time is also when we do our memory work, going over what we're currently memorizing and reviewing what we've already accomplished. That usually takes five or ten minutes.

MT is also when we listen to particular pieces for our Composer Study and Artist Study.  In previous years I've done Prayers, Poetry, and Memory every day, and have had Plutarch, Literature, Music, and Art on separate days.  As I said, I'm planning on doing Plutarch and Literature daily this year, and I'm also doing something different for Music and Art.  I've subscribed to Professor Carol's Circle of Scholars so that we can take her Discovering Music course, which "takes you through the history of music, the arts, and Western Culture from 1600 to 1914."  I'll probably need to drop Plutarch and Homer on the day we're doing Discovering Music.  We'll see.

And of course there's all the individual work that the children do, but that's another post for another day.  Or year. ;-)

Old Applejoy's Ghost

Frank Stockton is one of my favorite storytellers and this is one of my favorite of his stories. It is a Christmas story set some where in America -- where isn't specified but given the description of a colonial Christmas, I've always pictured it happening in Virginia. Enjoy!

Illustrations by Ben Wohlberg

Old Applejoy's Ghost, by Frank Stockton (on Project Gutenberg Australia)

Fun Stuff

[This is an edited repost of my last entry. I've tried all the HTML I know to turn off the autoplay on the Flash video I posted and it's not working. If you have any ideas, please pass them along. In the meantime, I've stuck that sill Elf Yourself video at the end of the post after a break so it won't turn itself on whenever anyone loads this page!]



Pretty fun

Make-a-Flake snowflake maker.

Musical fun





Silly Fun


Elf Yourself!

Click below for my video:

Some initial thoughts on the 2012 CiRCE conference

because I can’t go back to reading Ideas Have Consequences as long as I’m full of this conference – I’m afraid it’ll make my head explode


“The world that God made is best known through harmony.” ~John Hodges


In the first session, “A Contemplation of Creation, Part I,” Andrew Kern talked about creation, metaphor, and analogy. He said that the Law of God, the Torah, should not be thought of as a legal code, but as the wisdom of God. Notice that it begins with the story of his creation, and of his care for his people. Torah teaches us of his creation, his craftsmanship, his artistry. The core principle is harmony, unity in diversity.

All of the creation myths in the world embody the Myth of Violence. Think about the Greek story of Chaos and the Titans and the gods. Think of the modern myth of the Big Bang. Only the Biblical account does not begin in violence – a Triune God, at unity within the Godhead, creating out of his love and peace. The world we live in today is very angry at us because only we have the Myth of Peace. Referencing Elizabeth’s Theokritoff’s book Living in God's Creation he said that we are the bond of unity in creation – we are to unite the disparate aspects of the created order and bring them into unity with God.

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John Hodges gave his lecture, “Music and Metaphor: Towards a Sacramental View of Creation,” right after Andrew Kern, and he swore that they hadn’t been comparing notes. The quote at the top is from his lecture, which was all about harmony.

He said that Christ used metaphors to teach about himself – “I am the vine,” “I am the door” – but the metaphor works the other way too. Since Christ was there first, and since creation reflects the creator, the reason we even have vines in the first place is because they are like God in some way.

Other insights from John Hodges:

Metaphor is taking two disparate things and bringing them into harmony

Art is embodying something that is not able to be perceived except through that medium

Our Triune God is invisible; Trinity cannot be imaged logically

Perception of beauty = the ability to see harmony

Our ability to perceive beauty (and beauty itself) is fallen – we have broken perception; therefore we must help our students hone their ability to see harmony, we must teach them what to listen for in music, what to look for in the arts, show them what it is about a great work that makes it worth loving

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I was impressed (again) with the importance of having a harmonious household – that our relations with each other should be harmonious is the obvious application, but our relationship with our things and the things’ relationship with each other also should be in harmony. Making the home a harmonious environment is foundational to teaching our children what harmony is, and teaching them to love it.

And of course, the reason I keep harping on this is because I need to hear it myself. OFTEN.

An Experiment in Audioblogging: Shakespeare's Sonnet 30

So I got this wild idea that instead of continually telling y'all you should read poetry aloud, I'd just read it to you. I haven't figured out how to get a plain audio file onto Blogger yet, so I made the sound file, then added some images using Window's Live Movie Maker, and posted it on YouTube. It's a little under three minutes long, of which about a third is the actual poem and the rest is me yammering.

The first image, in honor of National Poetry Month, is "Poetry" by Alphonse Mucha, part of his series on the Arts.



Eldest Daughter says I should have written a script or at least a cue sheet, because my discussion is so unpolished -- but that was part of the point of doing it this way. I'm not a professional. I love poety, but I don't really know what to say about it beyond "It was nice and I liked it," which is about as sophisticated as my second-grade book reports were. I'm just a regular mom, and hey, if I can do it, you can too!


Many thanks to Dr Taylor and my classmates, Anne, Julie, and Daniel, for their insights and encouragement.